The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon-- Quote Reading 6-10

"How could one be whole and the other so badly shattered? How was that possible?" (King 57)

Trisha relies on her Walkman, the voices of other humans, to help her cope while she is lost in the woods. For a brief moment she contemplates the tragedy of being lost without an attachment to the outside world and she is certain her Walkman is "broken, shattered to a million pieces [...] Had to be" (King 56). Luckily for Trisha her Walkman sustained the fall. Her Gameboy, on the other hand, was the shattered and now useless object.

This is one of the most important, and affective scenes in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. The reader feels the high intensity of danger Trisha is in: lost in unfamiliar woods, without sufficient food or shelter, and relying on what little knowledge of the wilderness she has. This scene is an important building point for the rest of her journey, and showcases the importance of her Walkman to her survival. Although she is delighted her Walkman is in tact, she is confused about how only one survived,"How could one be whole and the other so badly broken" (King 57).

Though the Walkman versus Gameboy scene is important to understand Trisha's circumstances in the wilderness, more importantly is the metaphorical meaning it suggests for broken relationships. Stephen King doesn't hesitate to tell the reader Trisha's parents are divorced, within the first two pages to be precise.Bits of information are scattered here, and there about the divorce and the marriage but, nothing substantial enough to place blame on one individual. From the perspective of both the narrator, and Trisha the Walkman can be identified with Larry McFarland, Trisha's dad. The "badly shattered" Gameboy then represents the mother, Quilla Andersen.

Trisha's mother, Quilla, is the broken Gameboy after the divorce. Although she won custody of both Trisha, and Pete, Trisha's older brother, she fights trivial battles with her son and lacks interest in her daughter. Trisha disappears into the woods because her mother is too busy fighting with Pete, instead of paying attention to both of her children (King 9). Prior to her abandonment on the trail Trisha reflects on past outings with her brother, and mother, "Sometimes, if her really liked a place, Pete would give his mouth a rest. He has pronounced Six-Gun 'for babies' [....] Go along to get along wasn't in his nature. Nor was it in their mother's" (King 11). While on the trail with her brother and mother Trisha attempts to get them to stop to she can use the bathroom, "Pete? Mom? Mommy? [....] Trisha thought, [...] they don't even know I'm here. The Invisible Girl, that's me. I might as well have stayed home"( King 21-22).

Not only does Quilla's lack of interest in her children help portray her as the broken Gameboy, but also her resentment towards their father. Trisha's mother changed her name back to her maiden name, Andersen. Though King offers little insight into the divorce, the petty fighting with Pete sheds light onto her personality. Quilla always has her best interest in mind. This is obvious when Pete's circumstance is explained in their new home. He is lonely, has no friends and is the outsider. Quilla, not taking her son's needs into consideration, makes it harder for Pete to have a normal childhood. She wanted to move away from their father;she thinks moving into a different town will erase her problems. Running away from her problems inevitably creates more problems: fights that lead to Trisha's disappearance and death, and  Pete's self-esteem issues that will lead to depression.

If Quilla is the shattered and broken Gameboy, that leaves Larry McFarland to be the reliable Walkman. Trisha's relationship with her father is more genuine than the one she has with her mother. Larry and Trisha have a special bond, a bond that helps her make her way through the woods-- the Boston Red Sox. Both father and daughter shared the same favorite player, Tom Gordon. Trisha needs the Walkman throughout her journey. Hearing the voices of commercials, DJ's, and announcers at Red Sox games helps her through the dreadful silence of the woods (King 68&122).

As Trisha's journey continues she recalls survival methods her mother taught her, but she doesn't remember them clearly. She knows moss grows on a certain side of a tree, but can't remember if its south or north. What she does remember are the conversations shes had with her father. These help her mentally fight through the wilderness, "I don't want to  believe in any actual thinking God that marks the fall of every bird in Australia, and every bug in India, a God that records all of our sins [....]I don't want to believe in a God who would deliberately create bad people, and then deliberately send them to roast in hell He created--but I believe there has to be something" (King 65). While lost in the woods Trisha concentrates on "The Sub audible" and the way her father viewed the higher power (King 66). The subaudible becomes an important element of her trip through the woods.

Larry and Trisha's relationship provides Trisha with encouragement to keep pushing forward while lost. She imagines herself lost with their favorite player, Tom Gordon. She even images having full-blown conversations with him about his pitching techniques, standing your ground, and he helps her find her way out of the woods,"What's that? Tom asked from behind her" (King 182). The Red Sox hat Trisha is wearing the entire time in the woods was signed by who other than, Tom Gordon-- her father had sent it to Fenway Park with a written letter about Trisha (King 197). Tom Gordon, or the hallucination of him, is Trisha's saving grace. The relationship between Larry and Trisha grows even stronger after this experience.

In the final scene Trisha connects with her father, "This time Trisha didn't try to speak, only fixed her father with her eyes and mouthed it again, very carefully: Dad! [....]She moved her eyes to the chair, to his face, back to the chair. He looked puzzled-- [....] then his face cleared. He smiled, picked up the hat [....] Trisha tapped the visor of the cap, then pointed her right index finger up at the ceiling" (King 219). In Trisha's final moments she sent her father a message about her journey through the woods. She connected with Larry at that moment, no one else, no one else would understand about Tom Gordon.

Morning thought

Thoughts on this morning: 

Faulty Relationships 3-5

As my study into Stephen King's literature unfolds, his fears, or ones he deems important are more apparent. Thus far, King has examined the broken marriage or faulty relationship from several different perspectives. These elements weave in and out his texts like a black snake on pale concrete.


 King's 1974 novel, Carrie, merges stories of not only Carrie White herself, but also classmates, and her mother and father. The reader is given a scope into her parents marital relationship, and her mother's religious views.


 Margarette White's marriage is broken by the death of her husband, Ralph. Though this death terminated their marriage, it can be argued that their fanatic religious views contributed to their marriages downfall too. After all, even though she was married she viewed intercourse as a sin, and pregnancy as punishment from God, "Margarette said, [...] they were living sinlessly without the curse of intercourse" (King 49). Margarette and Ralph White are only the first taste of a loveless and troublesome marriage, and bad parenting.


Again these faulty relationships appear throughout King's The Shining. The Torrence's, Jack and Wendy, have fought and continue to fight through the entire text. Jack's abusive nature towards Danny makes Wendy cautious to even allow them to be in a room together without her. Jack's drinking, takes much of the fault for many of his actions. Though divorce is talked about, or thought about, on several accounts Jack's demise, and his families escape, occurs through death.


 Both texts, Carrie and The Shining portray this hazardous relationship among partners, and how it affects their children. In 1999, King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was published. And, yes, he retreads the daunting truth of the broken marriage through his main character, a preteen, Trisha McFarland.


 Unlike The Shining and Carrie where King provides immediate back story for the ill-minded parental characters, in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, the only back story provided by the sixth inning is what can be intertwined into the story of a ten year old girl lost in the woods. Half way through the book it is not certain what brought on the divorce of Trisha's parents. The only thing certain is the hostility held by the mother towards the father, but there is no mention of alcohol abuse, physical abusive, nor infidelity.


During Trisha's entrapment in the woods the narrator tells the reader stories about Trisha's father; some of which are alcohol related. After the scene where Trisha finds the beechnuts and checkerberries the narrator drops the reader into a reminiscent thought. "She remembered thinking about her Dad's backyard behind the newer, smaller house, how the grass needed cutting and the lawn-dwarves looked sly-- as if they knew something you didn't-- and about how Dad had started to look sad and old to her, with the smell of beer always coming out of his pores..."(King 141). During the reflection back King makes it potent to bring in the the drinking. Like Jack in The Shining, both these dads have a drinking problem. This is one of Stephen King's most popular themes throughout the texts I've studied thus far. The children in both these stories, like many children in similar circumstances, will reflect back on their father's with the thought of alcohol at the front of their memories.


Although both these fathers have a related issue, it's safe to say their issues are not on the same level. Jack, coming from an abusive home, falls into the habit of drinking early on. While Trisha's reflection makes is seem that her father didn't start drinking, and letting go until after the divorce. Throughout the entire story of Trisha Mcfarland it is unclear why her parents are getting a divorce in the first place. One thing that is clear-- the children are affected and the parents don't take the time to try to fix it.